Sectoral groups reaffirm support for advertising reforms
By Oghale Mafuru
To give further credence to the impact of the new advertising regime on the integrated Marketing Communications, IMC, Industry since the regulatory framework released over a year ago, sectoral groups have pledged support and commitment to the implementation of the stipulated guidelines.
Speaking exclusively in an interview with MARKETING EDGE on TV, President of the Experiential Marketer’s Association of Nigeria, EXMAN, Tunji Adeyinka stated that the new advertising law, promulgated by the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, ARCON has aided the business and practice of the marketing communications as terms of contracts are fully captured in the interest of both the agencies and clients.
He said: “We have seen a lot of improvements in value exchange between agencies and clients. We have seen clients who have actually come forward to say yes, this regulation stipulates that we pay in X numbers of days, but we want to pay earlier than the X numbers of days. We have seen clients that have come to us and say this regulation stipulates that we do this if we are running pitches; we want to do better than this.
According to him, though AISOP has not been fully implemented, there has been a series of engagements and collaborations among sectoral groups to aid the enforcement of the new ARCON law which has witnessed appreciable results in terms of compliance.
“AISOP has not been fully implemented but we started from ground zero to where we are today. Some of the stipulations will take a while to implement especially with certain clients or companies because, with some of them, decision making is not centered in Nigeria. The implementation is going to take time and, before we get to that time, we are going to have engagements” he said.
He added, “So, we have had very positive engagements with clients and also among the sectoral groups. It is the same as well. We have a very good relationship with all the sectoral groups and all the sectoral groups are geared positively to enhancing value in this ecosystem,”
On his part, Femi Adelusi, President of the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria, MIPAN maintained that though the new advertising law has not been fully embraced, there is need for deep evaluation of the law in terms of its impact on business growth and national development.
“The regulator is thinking more from a national standpoint. I believe the thinking therefore from a regulatory standpoint should be really around providing that framework and the guidelines that allows people’s livelihood to be protected and the economy to grow. That should be the key driver. Now, the advertisers and agencies sometimes need to understand these views and perspectives”.
“There have been a lot of attempts by ARCON in the past to engage. Sectoral bodies had sat in many sessions and workshops on upcoming policies and guidelines. There are a few guidelines we believe can be improved upon. By improvement I mean in terms of timelines, flexibility and rethinking some of them. Like even the laws of a country, there is nothing that is perfect even from the beginning. That is why we have a National Assembly” he said.
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